ARCHIVED - Canada's Nutrition and Health Atlas

See a specific health indicator (e.g. fruit and vegetable consumption) displayed visually on
a map.
View all health indicators for a specific province. Also, see how the province compares with the Canadian average.

Welcome to Canada's Nutrition and Health Atlas. Here you'll find maps and tables that make it easy to access information about the health and nutrition of Canadians. You can either view maps for each indicator, or view the data for each province.

Where do the data come from?

Data presented in the maps and tables are from the share file of the Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 2.2 - Nutrition Focus.

This survey, conducted in 2004, was the first to study the food and nutrient intakes of Canadians in almost 35 years. The survey targeted respondents from all age groups living in private occupied dwellings in the ten provinces. Excluded from the sampling frame were residents of the three territories, persons living on Indian reserves or Crown lands, persons living in institutions, full-time members of the Canadians Forces and residents of some remote regions.

Technical details and  Common Questions and Answers for Users (PDF Version) about the survey are available from Statistics Canada.

What data can I find here?

Currently information on Body Mass Index (BMI) for adults and children, household food security, number of servings of fruit and vegetables consumed, physical and sedentary activity, and nutrient intakes from food for all respondents (combined) as well as males and females separately is available.

At this time, the Atlas is only being used to report CCHS 2.2 data. As such, some nutrition related data, like breastfeeding initiation rates, collected in the CCHS Annual Component are not found here. If you're interested in data on chronic disease rates, please refer to the  Chronic Disease Infobase.

Additionally, unlike the CCHS Annual Component, which is large enough for data to be reported at the regional level, the sample size of the CCHS 2.2 only allows for provincial and national-level estimates.

Indicators reported on the Atlas are also limited by the use of the Canadian Nutrient File (CNF) database to report on nutrient intakes from foods. The CNF does not have complete values for all 129 food components for every food. As a result, nutrients for which the database was considered incomplete (e.g. vitamin E, vitamin K, trans fatty acids) were not reported for the CCHS 2.2.

What do these data mean?

How do you export this data?

The Atlas is a web-based tool that allows for easy downloading and exporting of files into software applications like PowerPoint, MS Word, WordPerfect, and Microsoft Excel. To include the maps on health indicators in a presentation, poster, pamphlet, etc., right click on the desired Atlas image, select 'Copy', and 'Paste' the image into your document. To include whole or partial data tables, highlight the desired information, right click on the highlighted text, select 'Copy', and 'Paste' the table into your document.

All maps, data tables, and estimates available online may be printed directly from the website by selecting the 'Print' option from the 'File' menu. No paper copies are available through Health Canada.

Please ensure that the following Health Canada Copyright Guidelines are adhered to when using maps and data tables from the Atlas.

Who is this for?

Although this atlas is for everyone, the following groups of people in particular might find it useful:

  • Educators
  • Food industry
  • Government and academic researchers
  • Media
  • Non-governmental organisations
  • Policy analysts
  • Public health professionals
  • Students

Questions or comments?

Tell us what you think about Canada's Nutrition and Health Atlas.

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